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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  19. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. chest — of your body
  3. game — wild animals
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. wind — moving air
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. tear — to rip
  10. row — to paddle
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. wind — moving air
  13. snap — to click
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. row — a line
  16. calf — of the leg
  17. game — a match
  18. arm — a part of something
  19. calf — a young animal
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. calf — a young animal
  22. chest — of your body
  23. tear — from crying
  24. chest — a box

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com